GREENSBORO — The House voted Tuesday to toughen the state’s driving-while-impaired laws.

House Bill 40 would hit violators with a habitual impaired driving charge on their third offense in 10 years, instead of their fourth. House Bill 31 would make indefinite the time a habitual impaired driving charge sticks to an offender, doing away with a 10-year clock.

The House passed both bills by wide margins Tuesday, and they now go to the Senate.

HB 31 is meant to close a loophole exposed in the Triad case of Lance A. Snyder, a serial offender who killed members of a Walkertown family in a drunken-driving accident in the 1980s, then got out of prison and racked up more DWI charges in the 1990s. Snyder’s second prison term was long enough that the 10-year clock expired and the courts had to treat him more like a first-time offender after his release in 2010.

He has been charged twice with DWI since then, once in Forsyth County and once in Guilford County, court records show.

Some House Democrats expressed concerns Tuesday that habitual DWI charges shouldn’t stick with a person for a lifetime, but the bill passed 108-10. Guilford County legislators voted yes, except for Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, who voted against the bill despite signing onto it when it was introduced.

Harrison said Tuesday’s floor debate changed her mind.

“The bill’s a little too harsh,” she said.

Several area legislators sponsored HB 31, including Rep. Marcus Brandon, D-Guilford, who was one co-sponsor.

The courts “should definitely know and account for the fact if you killed a whole entire family,” Brandon said. “But this is the loophole that you have. ... It is absurd.”